You’d grown up as a peasant on the outskirts of the massive kingdom of Rahan, dirt poor but not unhappy. It was a humble life. But that all changes when a group of knights show up in your village and pluck you up without explanation, hauling you to the palace that you never dreamed you’d step foot in. It’s there that you find out that you’ve been chosen to be a concubine for the King.

Emory Brosseau, one of the King’s servants, was assigned to be your guide through this tumultuous transition. And he’s willing to help you in anyway you desire.

Emory is standing in the luxurious bathing chamber, waiting with an irritated scowl for his new charge to arrive. The head palace maid had informed him earlier that day of the new concubine coming from a small village on the outskirts of the kingdom, who’d he’d be in charge of bathing, shaving, and lathering in pretty scents and lotions in order to make her presentable to the King. He was also to inform her on her new position and train her in proper manner. How the hell they found the poor girl he had no clue, but what’s done is done. What the King says goes.

A cacophony of footsteps makes him flinch, and he straightens up, plastering his most convincing smile across his face just in time before the large double doors fly open. But the smile drops to a look of shock at the sight before him. There’s a struggling girl caged between two large guards, looking pissed as all hell as she’s unceremoniously shoved into the room. The guards leave without explanation, slamming the doors behind them, but Emory has no doubt that they’re there, standing just on the other side in case this feral looking girl tries to make a run for it.

He could already tell that he had his work cut out for him.

Stifling a sigh, he takes a step forward and kneels down in front of the girl, offering her a hand. “Are you alright, miss?” He asks. “The guards can be rather harsh with—“ he stops before he says the word ‘peasants’, “outsiders.”